How many tons of WWII munitions are discovered annually in Germany?
In Brandenburg (the state surrounding Berlin) alone, construction workers, bomb locator squads, and others find an average of 631 tons of unexploded munitions per year. Nationwide, the figure reaches 2,000 tons annually. According to Spiegel Online, "Barely a week goes by without a city street or motorway being cordoned off or even evacuated in Germany due to an unexploded bomb being discovered."
More Info:
www.theatlantic.com
What are your thoughts on this subject?
24 Comments
Doris Dallaire
Incredible amount! Such a sad time in history. And have we really learned anything? Humans are really such a despicable species!
Fred Zeb Fudpucker
My S-I-L did a tour in Bosnia digging up unexploded ordinance. They did a good job, but it is slow going. There were teams there doing it before his tour started and there were teams there after his team returned to the USA. I don't know that stats on exploded vs. unexploded is in wars, but somebody(s) made a ton of money producing the bombs.
Evangeline Phillips
Roughly the same amount as have been discovered in the `UK
Clayton Dean Brannon
David Stokes, this is how a WWII bomb functioned, a fan on the tail and nose whir in the air, turning a number of times until the fuse is primed, which detonates a small charge to set off the explosive power of the main charge. No conspiracy just bad design.
Lynne Cohen
Teresa Irving, the victor writes the history but I will never feel sorry for Germany. The Germans were BAD to say the least.
Val Wilkinson
Don’t forget we should not compare German with that dropped on Britain alone,but with munitions dropped on other European cities by the Germans too. David Stokes,
Richard G Schwartz
Really gotta watch your step.
Armadillo
Richard G Schwartz, Explain.
gwendolynjohnston
How terribly sad ☆
Irene Townsend
David Stokes, People will always find conspiracy theories in anything and everything, if that's what they want to do whether true or false. Britain has been finding explosive bombs all over the country for years and Germany certainly dropped plenty of bombs on Britain.
Charli Robinson
Maybe had they exploded when dropped, the war may have ended much sooner.
David Coe
Studies show that at least ten percent of Allied bombs dropped on German targets in WW2 failed to function.
Rbee carey
Rob Farr, but don't forget World War 1 Germany had a lot of bombs dropped on them in World War 1 also..
ninakamwene
Doris Dallaire, DITTO and they will go like the Dodo birds. Be well.
John W Shreve
Teresa Irving, Maybe we (the Allies) didn't have to bomb Dresden, but the rest Hitler asked for.
David Stokes
The amount of ordnance dropped on Germany is no secret, British and US historians of this period almost gloat about the massive bomber and airstrikes that were sent over that country.
I am surprised though at the amount that didn't explode - is there a conspiracy theory to be had as to why so many were duds?